Acculturation Stress

As for my background, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, South Korea, which is one of the top universities in South Korea. After graduation, I worked at a trading company for 5 years and built my career as an overseas sales coordinator until my marriage and move to the US.

After I got married, I focused on family. I thought the early stage is critical both in marriage and childrearing. I wanted to focus on my marriage and our baby in their critical early stages.

While focusing on my family, I also thought about rebuilding my career in time. I was becoming more and more interested in human psychology and relationships and looked into master's programs in clinical psychology and counseling. It was my family background that increased my interest in professional counseling and clinical psychology and encouraged my desire to help those with serious mental health issues. Two very close relatives have suffered with health issues such as paranoia and schizophrenia. One has overcome many of his issues due to the affects of positive clinical psychology intervention while the other has not because he refused proper treatment. I have seen firsthand how these issues negatively affect the patient and his family members. I have a passion to work with people who struggle with these issues.

So I discussed my plan to go to a graduate school and achieve my career in a higher level with my husband. My husband is always supportive, and so he listened to my idea very carefully and thought it over and over.

Finally with my husband's and family's encouragement, I finally decided to resume my education and need to study Social Sciences first, which will be the foundational courses for my master's degree in the U.S. later, and we both plan to go back to South Korea to utilize our knowledge and experience earned in the U.S.